• Bodhisattvacharyavatara
    • Introduction
    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 2
    • Chapter 3
    • Chapter 4
    • Chapter 5
    • Chapter 6
    • Chapter 7
    • Chapter 8
    • Chapter 9
    • Chapter 10
  • collected works
    • 25th August 1981 – count Up
    • askance From Hell
    • Batman
    • The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford
    • Bob 1995-2012
    • Edward Hopper: Poems at an Exhibition
    • David Bowie Movements in Suite Major
    • Eglinton Hill
    • FLOORBOARDS
    • Granada
    • in and out / the Avebury stones / can’t seem to get / a signal …
    • Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters]
    • Miller’s Batman
    • mum
    • nan
    • Portsmouth – Southsea
    • Spring Warwick breezes / over Bacharach fieldwork and boroughs with / the occasional shift and chirp of David / in the pastel-long morning of the sixties
    • through the crash
  • index
    • #A-E see!
    • F–K, wha’ th’
    • L-P 33 1/3 rpm
    • Q-T pie
    • U-Z together forever
  • me
  • others
    • William Carlos Williams
  • poemics
  • poeviews
  • teaching matters
  • wormholes

mlewisredford

~ may the Supreme and Precious Jewel Bodhichitta take birth where it has not yet done so …

mlewisredford

Tag Archives: compassion

fall

26 Wednesday Apr 2023

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

2022, 6*, bhumis, compassion, death, disciple, doors, feeling, hill, history, identity, light, looking, love, norms, perspective, sentient beings, society, speech, steps, teacher, voices

          

                                               there – a cluster of them
                                        hung together in adventitious web
                                           creating dull light, or feeling cold

                           there – past the skeins and drape
                    of procedure and history, look, through
                       there, another, brighter;

       that one just went out; no –
don’t touch, the thread is too sticky,
   you’ll rip it apart, besides

                                     it’s become damp, candied, too brittle, no;
                              back out a little, careful, bend low –
                                 lower – don’t get all stood up, there’s

                 a doorway back here
          we can stand upright then,
             see the joists all about –clustered mutterance;

       let’s climb the hill – long steps
and steady, see the shanty towns, see the continents,
   the light beyond core, spread

                                     spread high and low and wide, ready:
                              catch them all
                                 as they think

                                        they

                                                  fall

 

WordPress have told me I have recently tripped 50,000 views; I haven’t posted since last summer, I haven’t been posting regularly for some three years; maybe I don’t write much anymore, maybe I should; but I’m touched nevertheless; so maybe I should offer some more, with open hand and mumbled smile

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

compassion & light wormhole: taking birth
death & identity wormhole: “…and may the great elements…”
doors wormhole: Four Noble Truths
history wormhole: the inevitable tock // when we close our eyes
looking & voices wormhole: Journey
love wormhole: the simple prayer // the tattered poem // the bitter lament
society wormhole: mirror
speech wormhole: time

 

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taking birth

30 Saturday Apr 2022

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

2022, 7*, being, birth, Bodhichitta, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, clouds, compassion, identity, ignorance, jewel, knowledge, landscape, lifetimes, light, lightning, lost, mind, mirror, mist, mother sentient beings, opening, perspective, self-cherishing, self-grasping, shadow, Shantideva, sky, sun, young

                taking birth

        there is
        the mind which cracks within the belly
        of darkest clouds

        throws relief to the landscape
        and populace of the
        whole of sky

        if I could but turn
        just 90˚ from my thin and lonely
        trajectory

        and open
        so much more to just this tempered niche
        of knowledge

        that I could both mirror and shadow
        every fluorescence even before and awhile
        it contrasted

        I’d be young
        that I have long lost and mist
        while evolving this sclerotic eye

        and then
        there’d be sun,
        all my endless malapropriations burnished

        and faceted to a tiny étincelant Indra-jewel
        glinting all direction
        within every perspective respective

…responsive over reactive; effulgent over productive;
avenue’d over viewed; abundant over possessed; dispelled over horded;
homeopathic over pathologic; being over mirror; caught over fallen;
the hand that scratches the foot; not-finished-yet over finished
…

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

being & identity & mirror wormhole: mirror
clouds wormhole: Journey
compassion wormhole: ‘the practice…’
lifetimes wormhole: in deed
light & shadow wormhole: silence
lightning wormhole: ‘she shook the sweets …’
mind wormhole: travel // when I die
mist wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – sooner; / and later
Shantideva wormhole: where it has taken birth / may it not decrease …
sky & sun wormhole: ‘in my car I pass…’

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‘the practice …’

25 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

2017, 6*, arm in arm, being, blossom, Bodhisattva Vow, colour, compassion, finding, growth, identity, journey, others, practice, requires chewing, root, Sangha, sharing, true nature, weaving, writing

                the practice
                of writing

                to weave
                myself between

                the threads, to
                thread myself

                between the
                fibres to form

                tiny root hairs
                to form the root

                to reach deep
                and to reach

                high and wide
                to glory in the

                synthesis of
                all the light

                to be found
                to be found

                colourful and
                blossoming to

                my own true
                nature; and that

                others, sibling
                to my reach

                and wonder,
                might find the

                growth to
                journey too

 

lookit: `found this one in my notes; possibly four years old; forgotten I’d had it; found stuck like a leaf between BCA I,3; not sure if it reminds me of the quote, top left of the web page, that I put there to remind myself … sure, on reflection, it does; how can I not: offer it up, and out

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

being wormhole: sweet chestnut
blossom wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – pageant of the trees
compassion wormhole: eyes like petals
identity wormhole: under the blue and blue sky
others wormhole: silence
practice wormhole: so, how long is, a piece of string?
writing wormhole: ‘not sure …’

 

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eyes like petals

07 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

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Tags

2019, 6*, anger, Arya Lalitavistara, attachment, Bodhi Tree, Buddha, compassion, earth, eyes, government, hate, identity, life, lotus, lust, Mara, orbit, power, self-grasping, sitting, stillness, suffering

                the variety of grotesquery
                with which beings grasp their self

                the various grips of power
                through summits of council

                and various arrays of stake and brandishment
                appear as the armies of Mara,

                the thirty two ways of seducing
                that would fill life to the full

                over both his shoulders
                while sat under the Tree as endlessly still

                as the orbiting earth;
                the Bodhisattva turned his head,

                clean as no motivation at all
                to exposure and scattered diaspora,

                but looked on them all
                with eyes like petals

 

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

Buddha wormhole: Candaka
compassion wormhole: at Kreukenhof
eyes wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – sooner; / and later
identity & life wormhole: none and all
power wormhole: the Bodhisattva set out / for the Seat of Awakening
sitting wormhole: quietly in my quiet house

 

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at Kreukenhof

18 Sunday Aug 2019

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

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Tags

2019, 5*, air, Amsterdam, breeze, clouds, compassion, curtains, fashion, fire, flowers, gravity, growth, Kreukenhof, letting go, photograph, retirement, river, role, samsara, sky, sound, traffic

                gravity, and river air hold the curtains
                down, breezes and distant traffic make them
                adjust against the sill stiffly, audibly

                but then, my people, I am learning
                not to resent your burning like fire
                when you play your endless roles like fashion

                and I am learning to let clouds fill the sky
                as you take every single photo
                of every single flower at Kreukenhof

 

Kreukenhof is a display garden near Amsterdam sited amid surrounding fields and fields of cultivated tulips, grown in strips of colour across a whole field; when we visited this year, we stayed on the Botel, a converted ship docked on the river Amstel in the IJ bay

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

air wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford – Sky
breeze wormhole: threshold to behold
clouds wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – sooner; / and later
compassion wormhole: light of all interaction
curtains wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford – The Valley
letting go wormhole: mandala offering
retirement & sky wormhole: ‘don’t look at it …’
river wormhole: boiled spangle with soft centre
samsara wormhole: the Bodhisattva set out / for the Seat of Awakening
sound wormhole: the blessings of the Buddhas

 

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light of all interaction

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2019, 6*, Arya Lalitavistara, Buddha, compassion, eyes, light, love, realisation, renunciation, smile, wealth, world

                light of all interaction

                he had been offered
                unending carnal delights
                and he smiled on them
                and declined in a
                thousand tender ways

                he had relinquished
                palaces and his eyes
                in a highway of response,
                so he shined without
                source or pervasion, everywhere

 

slight opacity from the Arya Lalita Vistara Nama Mahayana Sutra, the life story of the Buddha who left behind all that life could give in order to find what life is all about, who could be you or could be me

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

Buddha wormhole: the Bodhisattva set out / for the Seat of Awakening
compassion wormhole: waiting to be heard
eyes wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford – Rain
light wormhole: THE ATTIC WHICH IS DESIRE: by William Carlos Williams
love wormhole: Valentine’s Day 2019
realisation wormhole: there will be ovations
renunciation wormhole: Renunciation
smile & world wormhole: mandala offering

 

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waiting to be heard

05 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

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Tags

2019, 6*, air, compassion, contempt, east, feet, hope, indifference, Lanzarote, lifetimes, logo, looking, others, passing, promenade, story, toes, walking, west

                we look at each other –
                along the promenade east or west –

                within packaging-design, with
                burnt-core contempt, or we don’t notice

                with open air-indifference; but
                we have exposed feet, we lift and swing

                and place and stay, transferring,
                in a thousand different ways, with

                unsettling hope where
                the thousand different toes tell a

                thousand different stories in a
                thousand different ways, all just

                waiting to be heard

 

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

air wormhole: birth in the world
compassion wormhole: skeins of candy pink and lilac
feet wormhole: pediment to behold
lifetimes & looking wormhole: I
others wormhole: so, how long is, a piece of string?
passing wormhole: Vue de Pontoise, 1873
promenade wormhole: amniotic avenue
walking wormhole: Hastings: neither all or nothing

 

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skeins of candy pink and lilac

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2018, 6*, Bodhisattvacaryavatara, compassion, emptiness, giving, impermanence, lilac, passing, Perfection of Giving, pink, selflessness, sitting, smile

                skeins of candy pink and lilac

                one sits at the center of the world
                without getting in the way at all

                and slightly deflects the ebbs and
                flow of result with a very slight smile

 

Bodhisattvacaryavatara, V, 10

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

compassion wormhole: nevertheless
emptiness wormhole: sharpened apex
giving wormhole: it’s all about…;
lilac wormhole: pine // gladioli // [&] wisteria
passing wormhole: perspective
pink wormhole: Cocktails in 1951
sitting wormhole: Sheffield Park Gardens
smile wormhole: the silent night of the Batman

 

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nevertheless

08 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2013, 5*, attention, being, compassion, distraction, doing, failure, honesty, sitting, turmoil

                nevertheless

                I am not trying
                to evade distraction
                while I sit but
                I feel ashamed
                when it happens
                that I hide from
                notice and get
                mired in turmoil
                rather than
                honestly include
                each fracture in a
                wider and wider
                embrace

 

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

attention & being wormhole: do I
compassion wormhole: prelude: // travel
distraction & sitting wormhole: too greedy
doing wormhole: slow enough / to have love

 

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prelude: // travel

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2013, 6*, acceptance, castle, coffee, compassion, doing, driving, dust, field, green, Have, mist, motorway, passing, people, progress, self-compassion, sky, steel, stone, sunlight, tarmac, travelling, waking, wood

                                prelude:

                had a day to myself
                no work to do no family no obligation
                I could have built myself a castle stony to the sky
                but I did nothing to make my mark in the world
                nothing to house
                the sky

                and I felt strangely accepting of that
                a sort-of love really

                                travel

                woke-up stupid lack-slept
                but I have a certain love for myself
                and I get on with last-minute packing

                people, slaves in so many ways to Have
                but I have a certain love for myself
                and can accept us all to suffer our own coffees

                there is steel in all the greens and mist in all the sunlight
                the harvester shaves the field to dust and someone
                burns the wood to waft across the motorway

                but I have a certain love for myself and
                I let them all pass and while the rubber turns
                the tarmac I progress to a destination

 

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

acceptance & sky wormhole: stone
coffee wormhole: magnificent salad
compassion wormhole: so pleased to see you again
doing wormhole: wasted –
field & green wormhole: greedy
Have wormhole: beepbeep
mist wormhole: retirement
motorway wormhole: dawn
passing & travelling wormhole: handsome
people wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – agricultural show
stone wormhole: Salisbury Cathedral // suspended in everything
wood wormhole: the 19th century

 

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… Mark; remember …

"... the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful; it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe to find ashes." ~ Annie Dillard

pages coagulating like yogurt

  • Bodhisattvacharyavatara
    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 10
    • Chapter 2
    • Chapter 3
    • Chapter 4
    • Chapter 5
    • Chapter 6
    • Chapter 7
    • Chapter 8
    • Chapter 9
    • Introduction
  • collected works
    • 25th August 1981 – count Up
    • askance From Hell
    • Batman
    • Bob 1995-2012
    • David Bowie Movements in Suite Major
    • Edward Hopper: Poems at an Exhibition
    • Eglinton Hill
    • FLOORBOARDS
    • Granada
    • in and out / the Avebury stones / can’t seem to get / a signal …
    • Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters]
    • Miller’s Batman
    • mum
    • nan
    • Portsmouth – Southsea
    • Spring Warwick breezes / over Bacharach fieldwork and boroughs with / the occasional shift and chirp of David / in the pastel-long morning of the sixties
    • The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford
    • through the crash
  • index
    • #A-E see!
    • F–K, wha’ th’
    • L-P 33 1/3 rpm
    • Q-T pie
    • U-Z together forever
  • me
  • others
  • poemics
  • poeviews
  • teaching matters
  • William Carlos Williams
  • wormholes

recent leaks …

  • fall
  • “…and may the great elements…”
  • paisley // implicitly
  • this pocketed being
  • the inevitable tock // when we close our eyes
  • time
  • the simple prayer // the tattered poem // the bitter lament
  • taking birth
  • mirror
  • long / road

Uncanny Tops

  • me
  • Moebius strip
  • YOUNG WOMAN AT A WINDOW by William Carlos Williams
  • 'in my car I pass...'
  • 'the practice ...'
  • 'I can write ...'
  • like butterflies on / buddleia
  • meanwhile
  • 'hello old friend ...'
  • under the blue and blue sky

category sky

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tag skyline

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